The Ponchielli Theatre: 276 years young
Cremona’s first public theatre was established in 1747 on the site where the Teatro Amilcare Ponchielli now stands. The original building, designed by Giovanni Battista Zaist, had an entirely wooden structure and was destroyed by fire in 1806. Construction started immediately on a new theatre, this time to the design of Luigi Canonica, a student of Giuseppe Piermarini, the architect of Milan’s La Scala. Opening in 1808 under the name of Teatro della Concordia, the building suffered significant damage in another fire in 1824, but was promptly restored by Faustino Rodi and Luigi Voghera.